Hutchinson High wrestling coach Mike Garcia hopes the month of February continues to be a good one for the Salthawks.

Thursday

Feb 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2009 at 5:00 PM

Vance Janak - The Hutchinson News - vjanak@hutchnews.com

Sending 10 wrestlers to the Class 5A state wrestling tournament at the Kansas Coliseum, which gets underway today at 10 a.m., is a product of that solid month.

"We had a good regional," Garcia said. "We've actually had a really good month of February all the way. The regional, we got 10 in and we had a few others that came within a match, but it just didn't work out for them. I think they all wrestled well."

Garcia said he's satisfied with the number of wrestlers that qualified. Of the Salthawks who will be in action, four of them made last weekend's regional final in Liberal.

"Colby's good enough to win the state tournament, that's for sure," Garcia said. "He just has to go in and take care of himself and he very well could be. But obviously, it's a good bracket. There's four or five kids that could possibly win a state championship. It's something that can be done."

Hutchinson opened the season with inexperienced wrestlers at the lighter weights. Three freshmen will end the season competing at state.

"I think things finally started to fall together," Garcia said. "I think the confidence was there and it just takes a while. They've grown up a lot. I think getting to state is something that they wanted to accomplish."

Garcia said wrestling Hutchinson's tough schedule pays off in the postseason.

"We've got losing records that get to state. I think I've had five or six state placers that had losing records," Garcia said. "As long as the season doesn't beat them up too badly and they understand that we've got a tough schedule, then it plays into their favor."

Other area 5A teams include Newton and Liberal, who each qualified nine wrestlers to state.